2011 Watercolor Calendar Now Available

I just finished my 2011 watercolor calendar. It is available for for $12.00 plus the cost of postage to your home. The above watercolor is on the cover. This painting is of Crystal Cove. I did it from a photograph I took when I was there. Crystal Cove is one of our local Orange County, California beaches. I painted this with just the three primary colors from Daniel Smith, Ultramarine Blue, Hansa Yellow Medium and Perylene Red.

Two Paintings

These are two paintings.  Foppiano's measures 15 x 22 inches and Bayeux 18 x 24 inches. Foppiano's is a painting of a winery in Healdsburg, CA. where went to kindergarten. The train car is now an office on the winery grounds. It represents the railroad line that runs in front of the property. Back in the day in Sonoma county, before I grew up there, wine was was put in big tanker cars and shipped to bottling plants. Those days are over now as most winery's have there own bottling equipment. This eliminated higher bottling costs and helped to increase profits. The next painting I did from a photograph my daughter-in-law took while she and my son were in France. It is of a canal in Bayeux, France. Actually it is close to famous Normandy beach and the first town to be liberated in France at the end of WWII. Double click the image to see a larger view.

Beach Scenes

Living in Southern California gives me opportunities to paint around the water. In the harbor or at the beach. Here are a few paintings I have painted this year. The first painting is entitled , Tower Two. It was for a Plein Aire competition in the city of Huntington Beach. The Second painting, Crystal Cove. It was painted using a limited palette of three colors, red, yellow and blue. The third piece is of the Newport Pier. That evolved from last semesters watercolor class I teach at Vanguard University.

Europe Plus More

Here are Three watercolor sketches I did on large sketch paper 11 x 14. I like doing these sketches because I seem to have nothing to lose. If I screw up; it's cheap paper. So I am a bit more free. I need to devolp the same attitude toward expensive paper. It takes courage to do art. Life is about risks sometimes. Jesus said if you try to save your life you lose it. But if you live for HIM and lose your life for Jesus you will save it. Below are two sketches. One of the Roman arena at Arles in Provence. The other is of the Medeival Cathedral door in Aix. Viva Aix en Provence! The last is another view outside our hotel apartment in Aix. I actually liked this hotel. It felt a bit like home. We did our own cooking. Ran down to the Casino (a French supermarket chain) and bought lunch meat, bree cheese, a baget and a 4 eu bottle of local Rose. No television. Just reading. The sun went down a little before 10:00PM. I was sketching outside at 9:30PM. Different than southern California.

Cathedral in Aix

Outside our hotel room

Inside arena at Arles (Arl)

Market Morning in Aix

We went to the out door market in Aix early Saturday morning. They have a great market there. You get good things at great prices. We went to out door markets in Australia when we lived there. That is where I bought my shoes. They were much cheaper there. Anyways below is my latest painting as of 8/8/10.

Back from Europe

I got back from Europe July 18, 2010 after being gone 3 weeks. I didn't go there to paint but to help out at a Christian day camp in the South of France. Despite our busy schedule at the camp I was able to do a few sketches and start a few small paintings. The first painting Below is of Arles (Arl). Connie and I went there for the day. I started this sketch at the table we were sitting at and finished it when I got home. The second painting below is a sketch I did of the roof tops of Aix from the view outside our hotel window. The third sketch is the streets of Aix by our Hotel. I started this drawing at around 9:30 in the evening.

When we were in the UK I painted this "cottage" that was a short walk from my daughters house in Kempford, Engalnd. The final painting is of a pub in Kempford. I sat  on a wall and painted it early one morning. England is a beautiful country.

Latest Paintings

Above painting is a fountain in Aix en Provence, France. Found the image on the internet and made a painting of it for my "support letter". Hope to be there this summer to paint a bit. I am going there to help out at a Vacation Bible school with a team from Vanguard University. We will be serving an International Christian fellowship in Aix.
The Desert. Did this painting on location after Christmas in Chandler AZ.